2.Malamuth (1978)

The experiment: male subjects were divided into 3 groups

• Group One: read aggressive pornography depicting a rape

• Group Two: read non-aggressive pornography depicting consensual sex

• Group Three: read neutral National Geographic articles

Afterwards, all subjects were insulted by a female assistant and then allowed to ‘retaliate’ against her with electric shocks.

However, half of the group was told they could be as aggressive as they wished (disinhibited group); the other half were given a message to make them reluctant to use aggression (inhibited group).

Results:

• Inhibited group members were most reluctant to retaliate.

• In the disinhibited group, the most shocks were given by those exposed to the aggressive pornography.